Reuben Kaye directs the 2026 Adelaide cabaret Festival
Adelaide Cabaret Festival.
Artistic Director Reuben Kaye. Executive Director Isobel
Marmion. Adelaide Festival Centre. June 4-21. Bookings: www. Adelaide cabaretfestival.com.au
Previewed
by Peter Wilkins.
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| Isobel Marmion Executive Director of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival |
Founded in 2001 by the late Frank Ford AO, the iconic Adelaide Cabaret Festival has grown to be the largest Cabaret Festival in the world. This year alone the festival will showcase 79 performances over 12 nights, featuring local, national and international artists from the United Kingdom, USA and Cuba. Once again the festival program will present a studded line up of comedy, theatre and music for that once in a lifetime cabaret experience. For me, June of almost every year has been a pilgrimage to immerse myself in the remarkable array of artists that appear for a very short time at the Adelaide Festival Centre on the banks of the River Torrens. Under such past Artistic Directors as Jula Holt, David and Lisa Campbell, Cate Ceberano, Barrie Humphries, Eddie Perfect and Ali McGregor, Alan Cumming, Tina Arena, Julia Zemiro and Virginia Gaye the festival has been a wonderful and wild ride of ecstasy for cabaret lovers far and wide. This year the festival will be directed by the charismatic Reuben Kaye. Kaye needs no introduction to festival audiences of past years. To witness this phenomenal artist perform is to be high on decadent pleasure. In the past I have reviewed Kaye’s performances in glowing terms as “a living Dionysus, outrageously gay, divinely decadent, a towering vision of glitter and glam, inviting his devotees to abandonment and revelry with a dangerous defiance that crashes through convention.”
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| Alfie Boe will be appearing at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival |
“Reuben is a beloved member of the festival family.” ebullient Executive Director of the festival Isobel Marmion tells me. “He is such a fresh, interesting producer of cabaret. He won the festival’s prestigious Icon Award a couple of years ago and has such an amazing energy. He wants to keep the regulars that people love but also bring in young fresh edgy kind of chaotic basement cabaret that Reuben really loves and I do too. A really big thing for Reuben is development and education as in Rags to Riches an exhibition of cabaret costumes, and a talk series with the artists talking about the history of cabaret, and the work in progress performances.” Marmion is no stranger to the Adelaide Cabaret Festival and a couple of years ago presented a work in progress, Bumbling, billed as “a glorious night of dancing and story-spinning, through yearning and loneliness and honey (yes, really), and that boy you made out with behind your Nan’s garage when you were fourteen. “ Prior to taking on the role of Executive Director Marmion headed Tasmania’s Festival of Voices and worked for several years as Program Director for South Australia’s women’s theatre collective Vitalstatistix. “I think it’s really important to give opportunities to people in the industry as funding decreases.” Marmion says.
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| Mahalia Barnes sings The Rose |
In the same breath she assures me that the festival with have something for everyone and I am curious to delve into the variety of offerings that will excite and thrill audiences at the ’26 festival. We begin with a show that is certain to entertain. Lincoln Elliott from the UK will present Artefact (or, Repatriation:The Musical), an in-development preview of an unapologetically heist-erical emo-rock musical about stealing stuff back from the British Museum. “I’m so excited. It will be so much fun!”
Em
Rusciano gives the brazen middle finger to the kinds of love we’re addicted to
chase in Addicted to Love. “She’s really carved out her niche with
interesting, beautiful cabaret” Marmion says. “She can connect with a whole lot
of people and make them think that they are the only one she’s hanging out
with. What a skill.” Regular Cabaret Festivalgoers will be treated to Icon
Award recipient Libby Donovan’s new show Short, which she will be performing
with another powerhouse short singer, Michaela Berger. “We love them so much”
Marmion tells me and I have to agree. In their show Short, Donovan and
Berger present songs written by short people and sung by two very short people.
“They are really very short but with really big personalities.”
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| Jordan Gray performs Is That a Cock in Your Pocket, Or Are You Here to Kill Me |
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| Monsieur Camembert perform Cohen Noir |
There are acts who need no introduction such as the amazing Casey Donovan and Jazz giant Vince Jones, whose one-night stand at the festival is already sold out with no ticket to be had for love or money. Marmion reminds me that there are plenty of new and unusual acts to tempt visitors and open their eyes to a different kind of cabaret experience. These include Monsieur Camembert with their show Cohen Noir. Outrageous femme queer clowns will wet your pants with PoPoMoCo (Post Post Modern Comedy). And for something really tantalizingly different trans woman Jordan Gray is not to be missed. On a BBC show she was invited to be on she didn’t tell anyone what she would be doing and stripped naked in front of millions of viewers. The BAFTA Award winner’s show Is That a Cock in Your Pocket Or, Are You Just Here to Kill Me offers a pertinent comment on the Trans-movement in the UK at the moment. Cabaret is the ideal place for queer thetre to have a voice, often before becoming hugely popular in the mainstream. This year’s Frank Ford Commission enabled by a grant in perpetuity by the festival’s late great founder is granted this year to local performer Baylie Carson with her world premiere Baylie Carson is handsome (ish) Her deeply personal journey of self-discovery follows successes in Six, Mean Girls and Bring It On.
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| Frankie McNair and Isaac Haigh |
Finally, for those who may only be able to attend a selection of world class cabaret performances at the festival there are free events to encourage immersion in this extraordinary event. Cabaret icon Dr. Trevor Jones will again delight with melodies on the piano in the Quartet Bar of the Festival Theatre. In the Space people can mingle at the fabulous LGBTIQ Dance Club. In the Festival Theatre foyer, Kaye has curated a fabulous display of costumes celebrating cabaret’s glamour and grit from Rhonda Burchmore to Kitty Ban Bang and Reg Livermore. Kaye will also host the free and fascinating Festival Talks. He will be talking with special guests as they unpack the art, history and style of Cabaret. Each year the same question arises “What is Cabaret?” Festival talks will provide some insightful answers.
So, with such a plethora of
tempting experiences how does one choose? To help audiences who may only be
able to attend a limited number of shows on offer the festival offers Packages
of three show over any weekend. These may contain some tried and true favourites
such as Gillian Cosgriff with There is Nothing Like a Game, something
new and appealing like Tara Tiba-OMID with Hope and something that will take
you into new territory, a risk worth the taking like Reuben Kaye’s The Kaye
Hole.
Marmion’s enthusiasm and love of cabaret
in all its permutations is contagious. “We’re flexible.” she says in closing
our interview. “We’re resilient and we can still put together a banger of a
programme.” She leaves the final word to Reuben Kaye: “This year’s festival is
every inch the Reuben Kaye definition of cabaret. It has edge, sex, comedy,
fantastic music and hilarious nail-biting comedy. This is a festival of risks,
of leaps of faith, huge laughs and bigger heart. There is no other festival
that could pull this off. It will change your life.”
Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2026.
Adelaide Festival Centre
Program: www.adelaidecabaretfestival.com
